Another wet one

Tcha Limberger at the Crooked Billet (2)

Here's the first of my clips, from early on in the set before he switched to guitar. Check out the bloke with the handlebar moustache in front of the band. He looked like he'd stepped out of one of the old photographs hanging on the wall.

Firedance of the Day #2

Firedance of the Day #1

Notes from abroad: Fire Dancers

The 'legendary fire dancers' at the Blue Parrot in Playa were a suitable subject for my first HD upload to YouTube.




Watch in full HD here!

Semana Santa: (Moving) Pic of the Day

Semana Santa: (Moving) Pic of the Day

At this time in the morning I head for the Calle Ancha where some of the best carpets are made. This long one was on the road leading up there.

Semana Santa: (Moving) Pic of the Day

Listening to funereal music from speakers in doorways and salvos of familial bickering are just two of the local traditions associated with the preparation of ceremonial carpets in the small hours of Good Friday.

ZVUK Bazaar (3)

This snippet is from a piece which was the closest the band got in their first set to the Hot Club style of Django and co:

ZVUK Bazaar (2)

ZVUK Bazaar (1)

"A truly awesome evening is guaranteed," advised the blurb on The Crooked Billet website and they weren't kidding. As you will see from my clips, we were well positioned on Monday night for listening, if not for Daily Motioning.

Still, I think I managed to capture most of the atmosphere and a good deal of the virtuosity of this quartet of musicians playing a foot tapping mix of former Soviet and New European 'gypsy jazz' and folk.

The accordionist whose back features so prominently in my videos was the Ukrainian Bodan Chomenko. He was supported by the excellent Polish violinist Piotr Jorden, plus Jez Cook on his Maccaferri guitar and Andy Crowdy, the backbone of almost every band appearing at the CB, on double bass.

More to follow...

Tablas, guitar and bailaora

Some close-ups from the Ojos de Brujo concert at the Roundhouse last week. My father used to play the bongos really well...

Ojos de Brujo at the Roundhouse

More fun from the Roundhouse last week. That Cuban trumpeter can do keyboards too.

I've said before that I think Ojos de Brujo's blend of Flamenco with Latin rhythms and hip hop is variably successful. Still, Spain is in an enviable position when it comes to fusion potential. Compare for example Italy, which appears to be the only major Mediterranean country without a folk tradition, at least not one that has any visibility on the 'world music' scene compared to the likes of Fado and Flamenco.

A couple of weeks ago V recommended to me an album of songs called Nessuno È Solo by Tiziano Ferro: "the next Eros Ramazzotti" she said...not necessarily an entirely good thing.

Spain gets its afro influence via its former colonies, but in truth there's very little sign of indigenous MOBO at the San Remo Song Festival. Still, this early hit from Tiziano (who does have that unfortunate Lazio fan look about him) seems to have an enjoyable, Franco-Senegalese kind of beat:

More Ojos de Brujo

Includes an extended trumpet solo and more floorboard thumping dance.

JipJop Flamenkillo

Surfer tells me that the Cuban Music Awards at Floridita last Friday were 'a bit WOMAD'. So too was the Ojos de Brujo concert at the Roundhouse on Wednesday, especially when that Senegalese rapper in the white shell suit bounded onto the stage for the final number.

The dancer seen here isn't named on the band's Wikipedia page, but the three appearances she made on the night were really what added some bite to the musicians' performance.

Todo Tiende

The first of my videos from Wednesday's Ojos de Brujo concert. Marina dresses a bit like the Predator with feather boas.

The Roundhouse is an extraordinary venue. It began life as a Victorian steam engine shed. In 1968 The Doors gave their only UK concert here and the cops once raided the place to investigate the nudity in Oh! Calcutta!. It reopened in the summer of 2006 after years of dereliction.

La revancha del tango

It's only just occurred to me that it might be an idea to upload some of my older vids. They're lower res and hence a bit longer. This one comes from the superb open air concert given by franco-boludos Gotan Project in the quad of Somerset House, back in the sweltering August of 2003. For the first twenty minutes or so they performed behind a semi-transparent tela onto which all sorts of iconic Argie stuff was projected.

At the time Surfer reckoned that they were being supported by none other than Animal from the Muppets.

Bajofondo Tango Club (4)

The last and possibly best little medley of video excerpts from last Sunday's concert.

I also took a set of pics that night which capture what was going on in the shadows behind the crowd that had pushed up to the stage!

Bajofondo Tango Club (3)

Argie-rapper must have been off the day they were dishing out gangsta-chic!

Bajofondo Tango Club (2)

The Bajofondo Tango Club collective is led by double Oscar winner Gustavo Santaolalla, who on Sunday at the Roundhouse performed his De Usuahia a la Quiaca live. This was the most memorable track from his score for Diarios de Motocicleta (sniff sniff).

Santaolalla also composed much of the music for Guillermo Arriaga's movies Babel and 21 Grams and worked with Ang Lee on Brokeback Mountain.

He doesn't look much like an Argie....but he used to.

Largely unrelated comment: The boludo en apuros mentioned in this BBC News story is Shakira's future father-in-law.